Trouble Ahead For Frances Tiafoe?

After being troubled by back problems in his round of 16 clash against Holger Rune, World No. 14 Frances Tiafoe became the latest player to retire from the Cincinnati Open. The American was initially a break up in the first set, but was seemingly halted by back pain, and took a medical time out right before losing the set. After going through an early break down in the second, Tiafoe retired.

An Untimely Injury

After reaching the final in Cincinnati last year, Tiafoe’s retirement means he will lose 550 ranking points and drop to 17th in the world. Most worryingly for the 27-year-old, the US Open is less than two weeks away.

Tiafoe is notorious for producing his best tennis at his home Slam, and has reached at least the quarterfinal stage in his last three attempts, including a semifinal run last year.

Despite losing a five-set semifinal thriller to fellow American Taylor Fritz, Tiafoe showed potential that he could break into the top 10 and become one of the big names at Major tournaments.

Things haven’t quite panned out that way – despite a solid run to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, his other two major results this year have been disappointing, putting a lot of pressure on him to produce yet another deep run in New York.

Points to Defend

His semifinal run last year means he is defending 800 ranking points – almost a third of his entire points tally. A back injury right before he has to defend a large chunk of his ranking points at his home Slam is far from ideal preparation.

Perhaps it was just a precautionary retirement, but Tiafoe will be hoping his injury is nothing serious and he will be at 100% in New York.

We might even see him pull out of the US Open mixed doubles as a precaution, where he was due to play with Madison Keys in the US Open’s revolutionary new spin on mixed doubles.

Should Tiafoe lose early in the tournament, whether hampered by injury or not, he will likely leave the top 30 for the first time in over three years.